ALBUFEIRA · DECEMBER · THE ALGARVE
December turns Albufeira into a walking town. The strip that runs hot from June through September thins out, the Old Town stairs empty, and the sand under the orange cliffs is wide enough to cover a mile on. What you hand back is daylight and swimming water: on December 15 the sun is gone by 5:17 pm, and the sea off the beaches averages 63.4°F. The air is barely warmer, with an average high of 62.8°F.
Every figure here carries a named source: IPMA’s 1991-2020 normals for air and rain, a marine model for the water, a sunrise table for the light. November and January are measured in the same units further down, so shifting four weeks is a decision you can make on numbers rather than on mood. The year-round questions (which car to rent, which base suits you, what a week costs) live in our Algarve guide, our car guide and the Portugal trip cost breakdown.
THE MONTH AT A GLANCE · ALBUFEIRA IN DECEMBER
December is the mild, short-day Albufeira: 62.8°F by day, seven wet days, under ten hours of light, and a 63.4°F sea that settles the swimming question for most visitors.
LOW SEASON · HIGHS 62.8°F · SEA 63.4°F · 9H 41M OF LIGHT ON DEC 15
Go for: cliff walking at a 62.8°F midday high, empty beaches under the orange rock, short waits in the Old Town, and a winter week that asks for a fleece instead of air conditioning.
Think twice before: booking December for swimming and sunbathing: the sea averages 63.4°F, seven days bring measurable rain, and the sun is down by 5:17 pm.
Air and rain: IPMA station 554, Faro · Sea: Open-Meteo Marine · Light: sunrise-sunset.org · full sources at the end
On this page
- Albufeira weather in December62.8°F highs, 3.54 in of rain, 7 wet days
- Can you swim in Albufeira in December?A 63.4°F sea, and what that means in the water
- Crowds, booking and costs in low seasonWhere December sits, and what we could not price
- Things to do in Albufeira in DecemberThe cliff paths, the Old Town, the marina
- Two days in Albufeira in winterAn hour-by-hour plan around 9h 41m of light
- December vs November and JanuaryHow the three months compare, figure by figure
- Is December a good time to visit Albufeira?Yes for walkers, no for swimmers
If your dates are still loose, the same measurements for the months on either side sit in our Albufeira in November and Albufeira in January guides, and the twelve-month view for the country is in the best time to visit Portugal.
Albufeira weather in December: average highs, lows and rain days
| Measure | December normal | In a day |
|---|---|---|
| Average high | 62.8°F (17.1°C) | Fleece at noon, jacket after four |
| Average low | 49.5°F (9.7°C) | Cold enough to want heating indoors |
| Precipitation | 3.54 in | The wettest of the three winter months here |
| Days ≥ 0.04 in | 7.0 | Roughly one day in four |
| Days ≥ 0.39 in | 3.2 | A real soaking about one day in ten |
| Sea, daily max | 63.4°F (17.4°C) | Wetsuit water |
| Daylight, Dec 15 | 9h 41m | Sunrise 7:36 am, sunset 5:17 pm |
IPMA, the national weather service, measures those normals at station 554, Faro, on a thermometer 5 meters above sea level, over the 1991-2020 period. That is a real instrument rather than a model grid cell, and where it stands matters: Faro sits at the eastern end of the Algarve while Albufeira is central, so the readings describe a low coastal strip and nothing beyond it. Head inland or up into the hills behind the coast and it runs colder and considerably wetter than anything in the table above.
Seven days in an average December record at least 0.04 inch of rain, roughly one day in four. Three of those seven turn heavy, 0.39 inch or more, so about one December day in ten ends an outdoor plan instead of interrupting it. Watch the arithmetic before you compare with an American almanac: IPMA counts wet days at 1 mm and 10 mm, not at the 0.10-inch threshold US tables use, and the two counts are not interchangeable.
Pack for the 13 degrees between the 62.8°F high and the 49.5°F low, because the swing lands on the clock rather than on the calendar: shirtsleeves on a sheltered cliff path at one, a real jacket walking to dinner at eight. A rain shell, closed shoes for wet limestone and one warm layer cover the month. Our Portugal packing list has the full version, and it is built for exactly this kind of mild, damp winter.
On December 15 the sun rises at 7:36 am and sets at 5:17 pm, mainland Portugal running on UTC through the winter, which leaves 9 hours 41 minutes between them. Nothing forces an early alarm, but anything with a view needs to happen before four, and boat operators work a short afternoon. Dinner in Albufeira in December is a fully nocturnal event, and the town’s lit streets are the reason the evening still works.
Can you swim in Albufeira in December? Sea temperature and what it feels like
Open-Meteo’s marine model puts the sea surface off Albufeira at 63.4°F in December, averaged over 2015 to 2024. Read that number with one correction: it is the mean of DAILY MAXIMA, the warmest point of each day, so it sits a shade above a true 24-hour average. It also comes from a model rather than a buoy, and other tables for the same coast publish slightly different values. Treat 63.4°F as the top of the range you will meet, not the middle of it.
Most American swimmers will call 63.4°F wetsuit water. A short plunge off Praia dos Pescadores is entirely doable and people do it all winter, but the first minute takes your breath and a half-hour float does not happen without neoprene. Children who came for the water will not last. We could not verify lifeguard coverage on Albufeira’s beaches in December, so plan any swim as an unpatrolled one, short, close in, and never alone.
Our sources carry no December wind speed or wave height for this stretch of coast, so we publish no average swell and cannot tell you how many windy days to expect. What geography settles is orientation: Albufeira faces south with cliffs at its back, sheltered from the Atlantic winter swell that hits the west-facing coast around Sagres and Ericeira. The coves stay calmer here than the surf beaches do.
How busy is Albufeira in December? Crowds, prices and the demand peak
We found no monthly occupancy series and no room-rate series for Albufeira, so we crown no month cheapest and none busiest. The calendar holds without data: the Algarve’s high season runs June through September, December sits outside it, and one stretch behaves differently, the Christmas and New Year week, when much of Europe and the US is off work. Everything before roughly December 20 is the quiet end of the year in a resort town.
Book the holiday week months out and the rest of December late. Our rule of thumb, not a measured figure: two or three weeks’ notice (est.) usually holds for the first three weeks, while December 22 to January 2 wants the same lead time you would give a summer booking. Flights are the other half of the equation, and our guide to flying from the US covers the Faro and Lisbon routings that feed this coast.
On the municipal tourist tax, we could not verify Albufeira’s rate or whether it applies in the winter months, so no per-night amount appears anywhere here. Ask the property to show the line on the bill before you pay, and budget the rest of the week with what a trip to Portugal costs.
Spend the difference on two things. Heating you can confirm in writing matters more on a 49.5°F night than a sea view does, and we could not verify which Albufeira properties heat their pools in winter, so ask before you pay rather than after. The second is a car: with 9 hours 41 minutes of usable light on December 15, driving saves the hour a bus timetable takes. Where to base yourself is covered in our where-to-stay guide.
Things to do in Albufeira in December
A midday cliff walk is what December allows and July does not. At a 62.8°F average high you climb out of each cove without stopping, and the Sete Vales Suspensos path between Carvoeiro and Praia da Marinha stays cool from first light to last. Long driving days work on the same logic, since the air sits at hiking temperature from ten to four and no part of the afternoon has to be surrendered to shade.
The named targets are close together: Praia da Falésia and its orange cliff wall, Praia dos Pescadores below the Old Town, the marina and its waterfront, and, a short drive west, the sea cave at Benagil and the coves around Carvoeiro. We could not verify December opening hours or admission prices for the boat operators, the museum or the water park, so no ticket price and no timetable is printed here. Check each operator’s own page the week you travel.
The water moves less than the air does. Between November and January the sea slides 3.3 degrees, from 65.3°F to 62.0°F, while the average high drops 6.0 degrees over the same eight weeks. December leaves the two almost level: a 63.4°F sea against a 62.8°F air high, both read as daily maxima. The gap you actually feel is with the night low of 49.5°F, 13.9 degrees below the water, which is why a sunset cliff walk needs a jacket the afternoon did not.
Most of a December day here costs nothing. The cliff paths, the Old Town squares and stairs, the fishermen’s beach and the marina waterfront are all free, and at 5:17 pm the sunset happens early enough to watch from above Praia dos Pescadores and still reach a table by seven. Beach parking, packed solid in August, is a non-issue at this time of year on the streets above the coves.
Albufeira in December: a two-day itinerary
First light arrives at 7:36 am, so no alarm needs to ring before seven. Breakfast in town, then start the Falésia cliff path around 9:30 as the air climbs toward its 62.8°F high, two hours out and back. Lunch in the Old Town, indoors if the wind has got up. Give two to four-thirty to Praia dos Pescadores and the marina walk. Be somewhere west-facing by five for a 5:17 pm sunset, and book dinner for seven.
Day two goes west, to the Sete Vales Suspensos path and the coves near Benagil, with Silves on the way back if the light holds. About one December day in ten delivers 0.39 inch of rain or more, and that is the day to trade cliffs for Faro’s walled old town or Lagos, both under an hour by road. Keep the outdoor day floating between your two dates rather than fixing it to the first: a 48-hour forecast beats a monthly normal every time.
Albufeira in December vs November and January
| Measure | November | December | January |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average high | 67.3°F | 62.8°F | 61.3°F |
| Average low | 53.4°F | 49.5°F | 46.9°F |
| Precipitation | 2.97 in | 3.54 in | 1.94 in |
| Days ≥ 0.04 in | 6.6 | 7.0 | 6.0 |
| Sea, daily max | 65.3°F | 63.4°F | 62.0°F |
Air and sea both fall steadily across the three months, rain does not. December takes 3.54 inches, 1.60 inches more than January, yet its wet-day count is only one day higher, so the December rain arrives in fewer and heavier hits: 3.2 days at 0.39 inch or more. November is the warmest of the three by 4.5 degrees over December in daytime air and 1.9 degrees in the water. The air normals come from the same IPMA station and period; the three sea figures come from the marine model.
Shift four weeks earlier and you gain 67.3°F days, a 65.3°F sea and more daylight than the 9 hours 41 minutes December 15 gives, at the cost of half an inch of extra rain over January’s total. Shift four weeks later and January nearly halves the rainfall, down to 1.94 inches across 6.0 wet days, for 1.5 degrees off the daytime high and 2.6 degrees off the nights. Both months are laid out in full in November and January.
Is December a good time to visit Albufeira?
Yes if your Algarve is a coast to walk, eat along and photograph. A 62.8°F midday high is hiking weather, the cliff paths run the length of the coast, and the beaches are empty enough to change how the photographs look. No for a swimming holiday, and no for anyone who needs long evenings, since the light is finished at 5:17 pm. Families who came for the water will meet a 63.4°F sea and, roughly one day in ten, rain heavy enough to keep everyone indoors.
If rain is the deal-breaker, move to January: 1.94 inches across 6.0 wet days against December’s 3.54 inches across 7.0, and you pay 1.5 degrees of daytime warmth and 2.6 degrees of nighttime warmth for it. If warmth and water are the point, go back to November, the warmest of the three on both counts at 67.3°F air and a 65.3°F sea, and the better bet for anyone who still hopes to get wet.
Of the three months, only December pairs a sea above 63°F with an air high below it: the water still holds November’s heat while the air has let go of it, and by January both have slipped.
The last word
Decide on the nights, not the afternoons. Albufeira’s December low of 49.5°F sits between November’s 53.4°F and January’s 46.9°F, a 6.5-degree slide across eight weeks, and it is what you feel walking back from dinner at nine rather than what you feel on the cliff at noon. Book an apartment whose heating you can confirm in writing, leave one of your two days unplanned for the one-in-ten chance of a 0.39-inch soaking, and put the rain shell from our packing list on top of the suitcase.
Sources & data for this guide
- December air normals (62.8°F high, 49.5°F low, 3.54 in) and wet-day counts (7.0 at 1 mm, 3.2 at 10 mm) · IPMA 1991-2020 normals, station 554 Faro, altitude 5.0 m · checked Sep 23, 2026
- November and January normals used in the comparison table · same IPMA 1991-2020 series, station 554 Faro · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Sea surface 63.4°F in December (65.3°F November, 62.0°F January), mean of daily maxima 2015-2024 · Open-Meteo Marine API · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Sunrise 7:36 am, sunset 5:17 pm and 9 hours 41 minutes of daylight on December 15 · sunrise-sunset.org · checked Sep 23, 2026
- We found no monthly occupancy or room-rate series for Albufeira and could not verify the municipal tourist tax, so no price ranking and no per-night tax figure appear. December hours, closures and lifeguard coverage for individual beaches and venues are also unverified · check each operator before you go.